Behavioral Health Education Center Receives National Innovation Award

The Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce, a national non-profit organization dedicated to behavioral health care, has bestowed its Innovation Award on the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) (www.unmc.edu/bhecn) in recognition of the outstanding work the center does in addressing the behavioral workforce needs in Nebraska.

The coalition found BHECN’s work in collecting, analyzing, and disseminating behavioral health workforce data, including identifying trends and future priorities, particularly noteworthy and a model for other states in the nation.

“This award means a great deal to us because we were inspired by the principles of the Annapolis Coalition when we were designing our workforce center,” said Howard Liu, M.D., director of BHECN and interim chair of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Psychiatry. “Along the way, we have increased the licensed behavioral health providers in Nebraska by 15%. That means better access for families when a child has anxiety or a parent is ready to get help for addiction.”

Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska was created in 2009 when the Nebraska legislature passed LB 603 to address the statewide crisis in mental health access. Since then, BHECN has received two national awards and is considered a best practice for innovative programs to recruit and retain licensed mental health professionals in rural and urban communities. Housed at UNMC, BHECN has a unique partnership with all of the graduate behavioral health training programs in Nebraska and is dedicated to improving access to behavioral health care across the state. For more information about BHECN, visit www.unmc.edu/bhecn.